Psychopaths

What Does It Really Mean To Be A Psychopath?

“Bond has always been a bastard,” says Bruce Scivally, co-author of James Bond: The Legacy. “Sure, he’s charming and has the airs of a gentleman, but when the chips are down, he’ll twist you around in the middle of a dance stop so that it’s you, and not him, who gets the bullet in the back.” After which he’ll probably smirk and utter a saucy quip before dashing away.

But if he is a psychopath, at least he’s a suave and honorable one — and on our side. “Were [Daniel] Craig’s Bond to be captured and brainwashed and used against us, we’d be in big trouble,” jokes Scivally.

Others, however, like Dr. Michael H. Stone, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University in New York City and author of The Anatomy of Evil, believe that Bond simply exhibits several psychopathic traits but is not a clinical, card-carrying psychopath.

“Bond, being ruthless, daring, going by his own rules, absurdly brave and fearless, has some of those ‘psychopathic’ traits but lacks the ones that are totally repugnant socially, like total callousness and absence of remorse,” says Stone. “He’s not a true psychopath.”

“Most spies have some of those [same] traits. They can lie and hide behind false identities better than you and I, for example. But they are capable of loyalty to their country, and of obeying orders from their leaders — unlike the true dyed-in-the-wool psychopath, who wouldn’t give a sh*t for what the boss thought and would be loyal to no one but himself.”

But if Bond himself is not a clinical psychopath, no one argues that his opponents fail to make the grade.

Scivally believes that the ruthless and conniving Le Chiffre (a Bond adversary in the Craig Casino Royale) is one of the most formidable psychopathic villains in the history of 007’s cinematic adventures. A private banker for terrorist organizations, Le Chiffre is a chess prodigy, a brilliant mathematician and a criminal mastermind.

“[He was] a cold and calculating killer. Le Chiffre almost got the best of 007 at the gaming table, tried to poison Bond and then administered one of the most grueling tortures ever seen in a Bond film,” Scivally says. “And when Steven Obanno [another villain] threatens to slice off his girlfriend’s arm, Le Chiffre doesn’t shed a single blood-stained tear.” (His physical trademark is a scar circling his left eye, with a derangement of his tear duct that causes him to weep blood.)

But in spite of Le Chiffre’s many psychopathic traits, there is an even bigger threat to mankind in Casino Royale.

“As dangerous as Le Chiffre appeared to be, he was small potatoes compared to Mr. White, the man who pulled Le Chiffre’s strings. As a member of the mysterious Quantum organization, Mr. White is a slippery eel of a villain whose ultimate goals have yet to revealed,” says Scivally.

It’s likely that White’s intentions will become apparent during Craig’s third outing as Bond in Skyfall. Bond will also face the dangerous Raoul Silva, who promises to become one of the series’ most memorable villains.

Compelling characters like Bond and Le Chiffre, as with all psychopaths, are so strongly goal-focused that their lust for victory overpowers any sense of risk or consequences. Those with this mindset simply do not fear or respond to punishment. They’ve got their eye on the prize, and that’s all that matters to them.

“The true [clinical] psychopath… is an extreme case,” says Dr. Stone. “They’re no longer of any benefit to society.”